Brightly illustrated and well meant, but sketchy at best.
Case studies in how air can carry small particles and other things—sometimes for surprising distances.
Aiming to raise awareness of atmospheric pollution and interest in promoting cleaner air, Romito describes three historical incidents: the eruption of Indonesia’s Krakatoa in 1883 (an example of nature itself changing the air with globe-spanning clouds of ash), the “Black Sunday” dust storm of 1935 in the U.S., and London’s “Great Smog” of 1952. The author does note that the last two—both of which were caused by humans—resulted in major government remediation efforts. But along with underestimating the understanding of her intended audience by vaguely ascribing the Dust Bowl to “a kind of farming [the land] was not meant for,” she doesn’t explain just how suggested activities such as using less energy at home or starting a neighborhood “eco-friendly campaign” might help keep the air cleaner. Also, aside from coal, she neglects to mention fossil fuels, relegates indoor pollution to a glancing reference in her author’s note, and loses the plot midcourse with a sudden switch of topic to how air carries seeds, nice odors, and animal sounds. The theme that air moves is aptly conveyed in the illustrations; Cabassa places a small, racially diverse cast of human figures in glowing images of land and sky that are lit up with swirls and spatters of color.
Brightly illustrated and well meant, but sketchy at best. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780823455003
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched.
An amiable introduction to our thrifty, sociable, teeming insect cousins.
Bunting notes that all the ants on Earth weigh roughly the same as all the people and observes that ants (like, supposedly, us) love recycling, helping others, and taking “micronaps.” They, too, live in groups, and their “superpower” is an ability to work together to accomplish amazing things. Bunting goes on to describe different sorts of ants within the colony (“Drone. Male. Does no housework. Takes to the sky. Reproduces. Drops dead”), how they communicate using pheromones, and how they get from egg to adult. He concludes that we could learn a lot from them that would help us leave our planet in better shape than it was when we arrived. If he takes a pass on mentioning a few less positive shared traits (such as our tendency to wage war on one another), still, his comparisons do invite young readers to observe the natural world more closely and to reflect on our connections to it. In the simple illustrations, generic black ants look up at viewers with little googly eyes while scurrying about the pages gathering food, keeping nests clean, and carrying outsized burdens.
Lighthearted and informative, though the premise may be a bit stretched. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567784
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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